1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stand-up type personal watercraft, and more particularly to a stand-up type personal watercraft equipped with a display device mounted to a handle pole and configured to display information regarding an operation of the watercraft.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, stand-up type personal watercraft have a body including a hull and a deck covering the hull from above which are joined to each other at peripheries thereof. An engine is mounted in an inner space of the body. A water jet pump is mounted at a rear portion of the body. The engine is configured to drive the water jet pump, which ejects water rearward, and as the resulting reaction, the watercraft gains a propulsion force. The body has a foot deck on an upper surface of the rear portion thereof to allow a rider to ride thereon in a standing or kneeling position. A handle pole is pivotally mounted at a front end portion thereof to a front portion of the body. The handle pole extends rearward from a location where the front end portion of the handle pole is attached to the body, and a steering handle is attached to a rear end portion of the handle pole. The rider grips the steering handle to steer the watercraft in the standing or kneeling position on the foot deck. Such a personal watercraft is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 2504376.
The above mentioned stand-up type personal watercraft is not equipped with meters or gauges configured to indicate, for example, an amount of remaining fuel or oil to be presented to the rider. So, the rider has difficulty in obtaining this information during travel. When the watercraft is traveling over a long distance, the rider must often get out the watercraft and open an engine hood to check the amount of remaining fuel or oil.
In recent years, in order to properly control engine operation, personal watercraft are typically provided with a plurality of sensors to detect oil temperature, water temperature, rotation speeds of shafts, etc. These sensors are electrically coupled to an ECU (electric control unit) built in the body. The ECU is configured to receive detection signals from these sensors and to control the engine based on status information regarding an operating state of the watercraft. The ECU is programmed to control the operation of the engine properly to change the operating state of the watercraft if any of the sensors detects an abnormal state.
However, since the conventional stand-up personal watercraft is not equipped with the meters and gauges configured to indicate the status information of the watercraft which are detected by the sensors, the rider is not informed of this information during travel of the watercraft. As a result, the rider cannot specify a cause of some abnormality occurring in a running engine during travel.